Random thoughts on a Friday afternoon…

We’ve all got problems. More to the point, every IT department or team has problems of some kind. It’s why we hire consultants, buy products, start long and arduous journeys into the great unknown depths of root cause analysis, and so on.

What fascinates me is the level at which we come to identify with our problems. When I’ve gone into an environment to deliver recommendations, the conversation usually goes something like this:

I recently read the news that LogMeIn have stopped their free service. I’m not a big user, but it’s handy to get into family PCs so I can sort stuff for them without having to talk them through things.

As I was reaching for my credit card to pay the yearly fee for LogMeIn, I noticed people speaking in the comments about alternative products, so I decided to give TeamViewer a go before parting with my cash.

The result is, it’s fine. If you are a casual user of LogMeIn like me, you might want to consider trying TeamViewer out before parting with your cash.

Note. I don’t have a problem with paying for software, I do it all the time, but if there is a free solution for something I only use on occasion, I’m probably going to go that route.

If you are a DBA, you are going to spend a lot of time with Data Pump. All roads seem to lead back to it. There are some more headline worthy features, like transportable database, but the two that jumped out at me were actually pretty small, but awesome.

“TRANSFORM=DISABLE_ARCHIVE_LOGGING:Y” – Switches table and/or index imports to NOLOGGING for the lifespan of the import operation.

“LOGTIME=ALL” – Puts a timestamp in the output message so you can see how long individual operations took.

The admin interface has had quite a big redesign. I think it looks neater, but I’m sure it will take a bit of getting used to. The nice thing is it’s mobile aware now. If I run it on my Nexus 7 in landscape I get something similar to the browser view. If I switch to portrait it rearranges the screen to make it fit better. Neat.

The auto-updater (manually initiated) worked fine on 5 blogs, so not worries there.

I’ve sung the praises of MobaXterm many times. Just a quick note to say version 6.6 came out a few days ago. The download and change log are here.

If you are using a desktop PC running windows, but spend your life connecting UNIX and Linux servers, like most DBAs and sys admins, you really need this in your life! It’s so much better than anything I’ve ever used before. Even those really expensive desktop X emulators (you know who you are)! What’s more, it’s a self contained .exe, so no need for installation. Just unzip and go. Perfect on a memory stick!